Volunteers Lindsey Brignac, left, and Regan Johnson with the Society of Louisiana Caring Professionals in Action trim cypress tree limbs during the group's first day of service, in which they worked with Project Front Yard to spread mulch and trim trees along the Garfield Street Greenway Friday, September 28, 2018, in Lafayette, La. Volunteers also collected litter in various areas, worked at the Lafayette Habitat for Humanity ReStore and taught Acadiana High School students about careers in accounting.

Our Views: Spring reveals a trashed Louisiana

Volunteers Lindsey Brignac, left, and Regan Johnson with the Society of Louisiana Caring Professionals in Action trim cypress tree limbs during the group's first day of service, in which they worked with Project Front Yard to spread mulch and trim trees along the Garfield Street Greenway Friday, September 28, 2018, in Lafayette, La. Volunteers also collected litter in various areas, worked at the Lafayette Habitat for Humanity ReStore and taught Acadiana High School students about careers in accounting.

Nileta Fruge of Lafayette wrote us not long ago to suggest a new national slogan — MABA, or Make America Beautiful Again. That thought came to mind when she cleaned up trash along the road near her home, a job necessitated by the loads of litter others had left behind.

“As I drive about, all I see piled along the roadsides, in the medians, on the corners, everywhere, is trash,” she lamented. “This can be prevented.”

Lafayette gas made progress with Project Front Yard, a volunteer beautification effort launched in 2014. Clearly, though, there's still work to be done

Carol Allen, of New Orleans, another letter writer, chimed in with a similar concern about litter. She’d recently gone out to savor a Sunday afternoon along the city’s lakefront — an experience marred by all the trash. Allen picked up some herself, depositing it in pubic receptacles that were far from full. Clearly, if folks wanted to properly dispose of their trash, there was room in the bins to do it. “It’s just that some people are careless, forgetful or don’t care,” she concluded.

And there’s the rub. We proclaim Louisiana a paradise on our license plates, but too many of us treat it like a sewer. Maybe progress will come when more people like Fruge and Allen get worried about it.